Slipstreaming Away: Salvation

By Richard L. Cohen

In this second installment of the Slipstreaming Away series salvation takes center stage. What does this mean for individuals, civilizations and planets? Slipstreaming Away: Salvation begins with the disappearance of the head honcho of the United Nations Space Exploration Force and leads in directions that no one could have possibly foreseen. Lives will be changed and futures altered for people on multiple planets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663253682

Book preview

Chapter 1

Kidnapped – Sheri Alvarez had never been taken in her life. Sure she had been close on various assignments for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation but had always gotten herself out of what could have been disastrous situations. Now she was being held in a warehouse with her compatriots on a planet 30 light years from Earth. It was all a big misunderstanding but how were they going to convince their captors? While they all knew the fundamentals of working with aliens, she was the only one of the group that had deep experience working with the criminal element. After all, she had spent a decade traveling to planets near and far assisting on investigations that ranged from murder to robbery, white collar crime and even a few adultery cases brought by planetary leaders.

The latter called for extreme secrecy and tested her abilities to ferret out the wrongdoing and tastefully communicate it. It was hard, really hard, to find just the right words to explain to a powerful governor of a large province that her husband was cheating on her with a political rival. The difficulty existed in this case because she learned that the governor was exceptionally cruel to her husband, so cruel that she understood why he would look elsewhere for love – except she was hired by the governor and not the husband.

Sheri was an insomniac. It was bad at home in Chicago but especially grim while on assignment on planets that were not Earth. Must be the adrenalin of the assignment she figured. Nothing helped – meditation, no thank you – medication to knock one out – not working. So, while her exhausted fellow prisoners slept she was wide awake. She had plenty of time to reflect on how events unfolded that eventually landed her in this predicament. It all started on the beach in Mexico.

It was the day after her wedding and she was apprehensive. She had made a firm promise to her new husband that she would explain herself to him. Until the formal exchange of vows was completed on January 20, 2325, she had been prohibited by her employer from saying anything.

This had been a source of friction between the two of them for some time. Jason Wormly was very open about his work as a music historian at the University of Chicago. He understood that her work was classified; she wouldn’t tell him anything, not even the name of the planet she was assigned to for a case.

Some days she would come home so exhausted that all she could do was collapse into her favorite chair and watch mindless television. Other days she was expected home and she’d contact him saying she would be staying on the planet for a day, two or even three. He had no idea if she was ever in danger or if, one day, he’ll be contacted and told she was dead.

The beach in Cozumel was amazing. They had chosen this tropical Mexican retreat because the weather was warm, the water a sparkling turquoise, and the snorkeling some of the best in the world. By late afternoon they had the shaded patio all to themselves.

They talked about the amazing fish they had seen that day and how happy they were to be together, a first, and hopefully last, marriage for each of them at their mature age of 31. Sheri suddenly turned to him and said, "My last job was on a planet called Abraxas, 300 light years from Earth. You remember how distracted I was. I had way too much to do. I was originally sent there to assist them in investigating a death threat made to a hospital executive. You might think they could handle that in-house but on Abraxas crime was virtually unknown in hospitals. They were sacred places.

After I got there he was poisoned as well. He survived and we caught both perpetrators, but that wasn’t the half of it. Abraxas was invaded by another planet. I was asked to supervise a team of Earth folks who were already working there. We wanted them to gain intelligence that would help us know how to handle this new situation.

As if that wasn’t enough to occupy her time, she told him that she was also asked to coordinate scientists from Earth and Abraxas to collaborate on finding a cure for cancer on the planet, something that had occurred on Earth 75 years earlier.

One of the first things that we had to understand was that even if the people looked like us that didn’t mean that their bodies worked like ours, she said. We just couldn’t give them our cancer solution; it had to be custom developed.

Wasn’t there anyone else who could have helped you with this? he asked. Sounds like you were way overburdened.

Sheri explained that one of the rules of the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation was that once an investigator was assigned to a job they would be the only person allowed to set foot on that planet in that role. They would handle whatever came up and if it got complicated they would just have to deal with it. The rule exists, she told him, out of respect for the self-determination abilities of the planet’s own investigative forces. The last thing that was desired was for these other planets to feel that Earth was being overbearing.

Did you ever kill anyone? he asked.

No, absolutely not, she said. That’s another rule. We are not allowed to carry or use weapons. However, I’ve seen people being killed. Nasty stuff.

Are you in danger on these assignments? he asked.

Sheri explained that her job did have some danger elements to it, but it would be about the same if she was an investigator here on Earth. You just have to accept it if our marriage is going to work, she said. You know I’m not going to quit. I love my career. I could do it until I retire, which won’t be for another 30 years.

The next morning was sparkling. The snorkeling had been tremendous. They were looking forward to another day out on the water. For breakfast they had traveled into the city’s downtown and found a lovely bistro. They both had spinach, mushroom and cheese omelets cooked to perfection, puffy enough that it seemed like they were eating air.

I’m not going to answer it, she said of the buzz in her pocket. We’re on our honeymoon.

Sheri could see that it was Anders Bean who was contacting her. As the newly installed President of the Bureau, he depended on her expertise to get himself up to speed. Certainly he knew she was unavailable. If he continued to call then she’d have no choice but to answer it. He called again and then a minute later another call. She answered.

The call was indeed an emergency as it concerned Jeremy Kuti, the Chairman of the United Nations Space Exploration Force, one of the most important people on the planet.

Jeremy is missing, Anders yelled. It appears that he stole a slipstream ship. He may have been going to visit some planets where problems had been identified and try to handle them on his own. You’ve got to find him. I’ve been told he isn’t well but I don’t know the specifics except that it’s serious.

Where did he go? Sheri asked.

That’s the problem, Anders said. I don’t know – he decommissioned the tracker so he couldn’t be traced.

What about anyone else? she asked. You know I’m on my honeymoon.

All my other top agents are in the middle of assignments on other planets. It’s been a really busy time for us. Janelle is on Orion working on a financial fraud case. They are almost ready to make the arrest. Mark is on Brixton. They’re going to trial tomorrow and Mark is a witness. The woman you brought to us from her work on Abraxas isn’t ready. She’s just finishing her internship. You’ve got to be the one to head up this rescue mission. We’ll send a slipstream to you in an hour.

Please stay, Sheri told Jason. If I can finish this today or tomorrow we can still have the rest of our honeymoon.

Jason wasn’t happy, but didn’t show it. It would do no good to express his disappointment. He understood that this is what is meant being married to the top investigator for the agency. She had to go, and now. His life moving forward might be messy, but he loved her more than anything else in this world.

Jason had actually never seen a slipstream ship up close. The ships were regulated by the United Nations Space Exploration Force and could only be used for trips to other planets or in an emergency for domestic trips. And there were very few of the latter.

It’s much smaller than I thought it would be, he said. I thought it would be much larger to fly through space.

It’s amazing, she said. It’s only 10 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet and took me only about 45 minutes to get to Abraxas for that last assignment. In the interest of keeping no secrets from you, I can tell you that when I was there, the planet that invaded had stolen our slipstream technology and built these huge ships. We haven’t figured out how they did it. We visited their planet just once and they asked that we not return. We’ve respected this as we don’t go where we aren’t wanted.

Sheri took the ship straight to New York and the offices of the Exploration Force. She showed up at the office in jeans and a t-shirt. She knew that one of Jeremy’s assistants could go out and buy her some appropriate clothes to wear if she had to leave the planet. She didn’t have time for a side trip – the big guy was missing and time was short. George Rainey, the Vice President of the Force, quickly briefed her. Turns out that Jeremy had a severe case of arthritis and his stock of medicine was untouched in his office. He obviously forgot to bring it with him. That wasn’t the only thing at play here.

Jeremy, who was 66 years old, was in the early stages of dementia but had declined to step down. Since he had only been recently diagnosed he felt that he was still competent to lead the Exploration Force and George did not object. In hindsight that may have been a mistake but George had not wanted to take this further up the chain as he knew that the disease had a long progression – could be years. Certainly he would watch Jeremy carefully for any signs that the progression was jeopardizing his work. What he did not realize was that Jeremy was farther along in the dementia than any of his doctors realized as he covered well.

Do you have any idea, anything at all? Sheri asked.

Not a clue. This was a complete shock to us. You’re free to look through everything in his office. We haven’t touched anything. We thought he’d be right back from wherever he went, but it’s been three days and no word. His daughter is beside herself. He’s got one week, tops from now without his arthritis meds. If he doesn’t have them, he’ll be in such pain that he’ll wish he was dead.

Sheri set up camp in Jeremy’s office and asked his assistant to order a pizza. It was only a few hours since she ate that delicious omelet in Cozumel, but nervous energy, the type she got every time she started a new assignment, made her hungry. And one thing she had learned about herself – when she was hungry it was hard to concentrate on work and in this case, poring through his computer.

Piping hot – that’s how she liked her pizza and that is precisely what was delivered. The thin crust cheese slices were not nearly as filling as the deep dish pizza she grew up with in Chicago. Thankfully his assistant ordered an extra-large pizza. One slice, two slices, three slices. Sheri was just about full. She decided that she would have one more because she did not know when she would eat again. Jeremy’s assistant ate two slices and had two to take home to her family.

Files, files and more files. Didn’t he ever delete anything? Over the last few days before his disappearance he had looked through files on more than two dozen planets. Most had already experienced first contact years earlier and had welcomed trade and knowledge exchanges with Earth. Relations were at a fairly mature level with some individuals from Earth working on the planets and, in a few cases, individuals from these alien worlds were working with Earth organizations. Three of the files were in the pending category, meaning that it was still under discussion whether or not to initiate contact.

So, where was Jeremy? Could he have attempted to make first contact with one of these planets without the approval of the Board of Directors? Or, was there some issue on one of the other planets that he was trying to solve? Or, perhaps it was something totally different, maybe something to do with his personal life. After all, in the early years of the Space Exploration Force, Jeremy had traveled to some of these planets and had the opportunity to forge relationships with the locals.

Logic, sheer logic – that was only going to work so far. As someone with an early case of dementia, he could get pretty confused. The only way forward was to examine each file and rank possibilities. Then, if she could narrow it down to three or four that would be a great place to start.

Sheri settled in. Thankfully she was what one might call a speed reader. She could scan a document, get to the gist of it and move on quickly. It didn’t take long to move through the first file. Zeta was a planet 35 light years away that initially had welcomed consultants from Earth to help them solve key problems but lately there had been tensions rising up. There were some religious leaders, one in particular, who wanted the Earth folks to leave. They believed that this alien presence was harmful to their depiction of the cosmos with Zeta as the center. The Ruling Council with one dissident wanted the Earth folks to stay in the interest of fostering knowledge and progress. This was the classic religion/government clash that had erupted on so many worlds, she observed.

Zeta looked like a strong possibility. Perhaps Jeremy went there to secretly broker a deal between the two warring factions that would allow contact with Earth to continue, albeit with some restrictions.

Another file focused on technology. The United Nations Space Exploration Force had directed that slipstream technology was not to be given to any other planet. That nasty business with Mondo Cent a few years earlier was the reason for the formalization and strict compliance of this policy. Yerks, a planet 55 light years from Earth, was making insistent requests. Dialogue after First Contact came with no anger and a lot of smiles, but the message was clear: we need this technology and we’ll keep after you until you relent. This conflict could certainly use some mediation.

Both were logical choices, particularly since Sheri had been told that Jeremy felt he had great mediation skills, a belief based on his ability to bring people together around controversial issues that periodically came up with the Force. One of those was on the qualifications to be a member of an exploration crew. After he took the job a decade ago, he learned that his predecessor had insisted on such an intensive battery of tests and background evaluations that only three out of a hundred even qualified for an interview. Some on the management team strongly supported this procedure. Others felt that if this were to continue it would greatly hamper the Force’s mission to explore, make contact and establish relations with an ever-growing number of planets. There was truth to both sides and he could have made a snap judgment based on his authority.

Rather than do this, he gathered the staff together for an intensive two day brainstorming session, out of which came a compromise that resulted in a quarter of the applicants getting interviews. Sheri’s contacts within the Space Force had been helpful in bringing this example, among several others, to her attention.

Then there was The Garfield. This planet, at 75 light years from Earth, was on the no-contact list. The initial landing was two years earlier by a team of seven explorers. They thought they would be welcomed based on the Space Exploration’s Force’s prior research. They were wrong.

The landing was successful, but no reports back from the crew were made. Contact was made with those who said they represented the planet’s leadership. They said they would conduct a search and in due course reported back that they could not find them. Jeremy doubted that they really did much of a search mission, but decided that it was too risky to send more Earth folks to join the search. Explorers knew the risks when they signed up for the job. Pressure had been applied to him by the explorers’ families, but so far he had stood firm. He wasn’t going to lose more explorers and he wanted to keep his options open with the planet’s leaders in the hope that they will mount a more expansive rescue mission.

These three leads were by far the strongest, she felt. However, there was no way she could go to each planet by herself and properly investigate. It had to be a team approach. She needed to be quick about it.

She relayed her thoughts back to Anders Bean and asked if she could bring in some folks from outside the agency to assist.

Sure, you can have anything you want, Anders told her. He authorized her to fill out the team with whoever she thought was best. However, he directed her to only have one team member go to each planet. Any more could cause problems of its own. This retrieval effort needed to be done without drawing too much attention. A higher profile mission could cause Jeremy to go further underground if, for whatever reason, he didn’t want to be found.

Her first call was to Jesse Kahn, the Ambassador to Abraxas. He had once worked as one of the Space Force’s most experienced explorers and knew Jeremy well. Sheri wanted Jesse not only for his skills as an explorer but also his expertise at mediation and diplomacy.

Chapter 2

Penny Kahn was sleeping soundly, one of the benefits of having her husband out of town. As the Ambassador to Abraxas he occasionally had to leave the capital city for events on other parts of the planet. Jesse normally arose at 5 a.m. to get in his requisite amount of exercise before his normally very busy day on the job. The disturbance was always enough to get her up too.

I’m sorry to trouble you, Sheri said. I know it’s early. I need to talk to Jesse right now.

He’s not here. He’s in Lucia to attend the new Steward’s swearing in and to talk about additional ways that Earth can cooperate with Lucia’s solar industry. He is out of range so I can’t contact him right now.

It’s urgent. Where is he staying?

The Steward’s family is hosting them – here’s how to get hold of him, she said.

Jesse was quickly onboard. Jeremy meant a lot to him. It was Jeremy that gave him this opportunity to be an ambassador when others might have booted him out of the Force for his mistake. That error was never out of his mind. He was on the First Contact mission to Mondo Cent and accidently leaked to a representative of the government that the slipstream ships had traveled to other planets, a shocking mistake for someone who had a number of years of exploration under his belt. This began a chain of events that led to a Mondo Cent warlord stealing the technology, building ships, using them to take over the planet and then invading Abraxas. The occupation did not last long but it was a lesson in the power of this technological advance and the steps others might take to acquire it. An apology to his host, a train trip back to the capital city, a quick stop at home and within four hours of hearing about Jeremy’s disappearance he was back on Earth meeting with Sheri in New York.

He would take one planet, Sheri would take another, but who else were they going to get?

A bounty hunter, Jesse suggested.

That’s a great idea if only we knew someone trustworthy who can travel, she said.

As it turns out I do, Jesse said. There’s this guy who I worked with years ago just as I was starting out with the Space Force. He left the Force because he got claustrophobic traveling by slipstream. He knew Jeremy and I’m certain he would join us if I can meet him in person.

A sleazy part of town – more often than not bail bonds offices were in these locations. You’re in luck, said the owner of San Francisco Bail Bonds. Brady is coming in right now. He got the guy.

Fifteen minutes later the door opened and a well-dressed man in handcuffs walked in, pushed forward by a scruffy looking middle-aged Brady Jets.

He was at lunch with his lover, Brady said. He had a lot of nerve being out in public like that. He’s going down for a long time.

Brady saw Jesse standing in back of the room. Hey old friend, he said. How long has it been? Years – I heard you left the Force.

I did, he replied. Can you believe it? I’m now an ambassador to Abraxas.

How’d you get that?

It’s a long story, but I’m enjoying it. The people are really nice and it’s been a different change of pace.

Jesse explained the situation and Brady was onboard immediately. I loved the guy, he said. He did a lot for my career. I just couldn’t do the travel anymore, but for him I’ll do it just this once. Send me wherever you need me. Just get me some anxiety meds before I go so I don’t back out at the last minute.

Can do, Jesse said. There are a lot of people who are concerned about Jeremy. Let’s get this started.

So Brady would not have to travel to New York, Sheri came to San Francisco. The three of them met at an outdoor café in the city’s Marina District with a spectacular view of the Bay. To the casual observer, it looked like one of those forgettable business lunches among three people who didn’t know each other well.

Sheri barely touched her turkey and cheese sandwich. She was that nervous. Jesse and Brady on the other hand downed salads and sandwiches with great ferocity.

First rule before starting an investigation, Brady said. Eat hearty. You don’t know when your next meal will be. I’ve been on some crazy ones. I had this one guy who was always one step ahead of me. I’d get there and missed him by minutes. On that case I didn’t eat for two days. But I got him. Found him way out in the desert, hiding behind the only store for miles.

Sheri explained her analysis of the case files she found on Jeremy’s desk and described each of the three top possibilities in some detail.

Brady, it makes sense for you to take The Garfield, she said. "Perhaps he went there to see if he could find our missing explorers. Maybe you’ll find them too. Jesse, you’ve got Yerks. You, among all people, understand the dangers of giving our slipstream technology to another planet. Perhaps Jeremy went there to broker a deal with them. If he did it would be the dementia talking. If you find him, you can’t let him negotiate.

"I’ll take Zeta. I’ve been through this before on other planets that don’t want to let go of